The Indian Supreme Court Is Teaching Men Why It's Cool To Break Ancient Traditions For Good

Every year, a solitary bylane in Delhi's South Moti Bagh lights up with the flicker of several diyas and candles that dot the many flat surfaces along the lonely path. Nobody can be seen in the immediate vicinity, nobody you can credit for the cheerful act, and yet the glowing street manages to fill your heart with the happy spirit of the season. Diwali is here, and we have the entire city to show for it!

Diwali - the festival of lights, also happens to be India's most favourite festival. The entire nation comes together to celebrate the occasion as one; regardless of the boundaries, languages and cultures that might separate them on other days.

For most of us, Diwali evokes glad memories of colourful Chinese lights gracing every inch of the verandah at home, wearing sparkling new clothes, gobbling up a hell lot of mithai and namkeen, and of course, the deafening sounds of crackers and glittering sparklers that filled our silly, childish heart with endless mirth.

However, this year, the aforementioned tradition, and the nostalgia it welcomes year after year, might undergo a major change. After Supreme Court's order pushing for a 'green' Diwali, only those fireworks falling under permissible noise and smoke levels shall be allowed for use this Diwali, and that too only between 8 - 10 pm.

SC's verdict comes as a welcome news for Delhiites, who are literally struggling to breathe post-Dussehra celebrations. With the city's Air Quality Index (AQI) recorded at season's highest at 337 on Saturday as per CPCB records, it would do all of us great good to break away from our age-old traditions and conform to the ban on crackers.

Agreed that traditions are fun and emblematic of our cultural heritage, but ancient traditions that don't leave room to accommodate change, and move forward with the changing times only prohibits socio-cultural growth.

To establish a more sensitive and progressive society, we need to break away from the shackles of ancient, unjust and harmful traditions. Traditions that not only threaten to squash our fundamental rights, but also prevent a holistic development of the society and its people.

The verdict on firecrackers is just one of the latest moves that challenge such regressive traditions. This year, the SC has shown us time and again that we must stand up against laws and traditions that are harmful to society. Be it Section 377 or the Sabarimala Temple verdict, we have seen how moves have been made to discard laws that are harmful to the society.

Yet, with each of these decisions that came our way, a certain segment of men in our society stood up against them. They somehow keep overlooking the entitlement they enjoy in our society merely by the virtue of being men. Men are almost never questioned or judged, and the concept of victim-blaming in the case of men is simply non-existent.

Remember Mulayam Singh Yadav's outrageous comment in 2015, when he said “boys will be boys...they make mistakes”, expressing his dissent against capital punishment for rape? That's really an honest reflection of the prevailing mindset of the Indian society.

More recently, with the #MeToo movement's furore gripping the nation, and with the endless accounts of harassment and assault pouring in from women across the country, men have yet again failed to play their part in stepping up, and making a positive impact to the situation by wielding their authority and power to aid women's concerns and voices be heard, and taken seriously.

A Facebook user by the name of Bhandari Pb was seen commenting, “A dog at my frnds place licked my toe 5years back...I felt so uncomfortable...Me Too” on a #MeToo post listing the names of the accused. Another user commented on MJ Akbar's resignation with this, “justice has been without court order ... who served justice? feminist court of India?”. Such reactions only go to show how men have taken to trivialising the matter, or defacing the movement by giving it a political colour.

In this entire man-made ruckus, what they seemed to have forgotten is that women, who are constantly fighting gazillion other personal and professional battles within the society, have finally decided to break out of the tradition of 'silence'. The tradition that dictates them to stay mum about injustice and assault, who glorify the notion of playing victim instead of rising as a survivor.

It's time men realised that the onus lies with them to bring about a change and leave behind such practices that harm us, and stubs our growth. Yet, perhaps, there is still hope for us because of men such as retired officer Mr. Datta, who believes that “the #MeToo movement might usher a safer future for my granddaughter."

Maybe now men will also learn to think twice before making every single move like the women of our country have done of centuries at a stretch. Or if nothing else they might learn to mind their own business at the very least.

The young generation isn't lagging behind either. The unrest around the Sabarimala verdict unsettled CAT aspirant Uday, who believes that, “when the women in our society are expected to further our religious and cultural traditions on all other occasions, when they are the ones following every religious tradition and ritual to the T in our society, then why should they be stopped from seeking God Ayyappan's blessings? They deserve it just as much as anybody else. Young or old.”

Will more please rise and dare to break the traditions, or at least come out in support of the ones who are fighting to bring about a change? Let's remember the efforts of Raja Ram Mohan Roy who stood up against Sati, the tireless efforts of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar who fought to legalise widow remarriage, and hail the terrific move of Savitri Bai Phule who went against an orthodox society to open a school for women and untouchables.

It's about time the men of our generation stood up to similar challenges in our society today, just like they did.